After moderating declines in pay-TV subscriptions due to stay-at-home trends, losses will tick up to 6.6% this year, from 4.9% in 2020, S&P Global predicted Friday. Losses will be primarily from larger cable operators, as consumers continue to abandon pay TV’s “steadily increasing prices for less expensive streaming video options.” The cable industry’s indifference is increasing on “whether unprofitable customers get their video service from cable companies or a third-party service,” said the report. Though cord cutting’s impact and fewer pay-TV cable bundles are “negative for the U.S. television sector’s credit quality,” the effect on ratings in the cable sector will be "muted” due to the strength of providers’ broadband service, S&P said. Satellite pay-TV subscribers will drop by double digits, said the report. Though Dish Network’s focus on key rural subscribers slowed its losses, the sustainability of that trend is “uncertain,” said the report. Dish may “struggle to continue passing along rate increases as life normalizes and demand for in-home entertainment subsides,” it said. Churn could increase in 2021 as vaccination rates increase and consumers become more comfortable letting technicians into their homes to switch providers or move, it said. S&P cited bipartisan government support to increase broadband availability, which would “shrink the addressable market significantly” over several years. S&P sees DirecTV's subscriber retention “woes” continuing this year. It had expected such losses to moderate last year as the company cycled through circa-2017 subscribers on deeply discounted plans. That didn’t occur: The pace of subscriber defections remained at about 15%, it said. DirecTV's subscribers skew to urban and suburban markets, where they have access to broadband and streaming alternatives. Dish and NCTA declined to comment Monday. DirecTV owner AT&T didn't comment.

Altice unveiled its Smart WiFi 6 home broadband service Monday. It said Smart WiFi 6 is available to new Optimum and Suddenlink 1 Gig broadband customers. It said in some areas, Smart WiFi 6 will be available with the highest speed tier offered where 1 Gig service isn't currently available.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals consolidated two appeals involving a New Jersey cable prorating rule. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities last week appealed a March 23 opinion (both in Pacer) by U.S. District Court in Newark, which agreed with Altice that requiring the company to prorate bills is impermissible rate regulation preempted by the federal Cable Act. BPU last year appealed the district court’s earlier ruling denying reconsideration of a temporary injunction (see 2004090065). “The actions at Nos. 20-1773 and 21-1791 are hereby consolidated for all purposes,” the 3rd Circuit ordered (in Pacer) Thursday. “A consolidated briefing schedule will be issued when appropriate.” Altice didn't comment Friday.

Roku is rebranding as "Roku Originals" the content it acquired with the Quibi buy in January (see 2101080028), said the company Wednesday. That will also be the brand name for future original programming on The Roku Channel, its ad-supported offering.

Netflix ruled out streaming competition for Q1's subscriber forecast miss (see 2104200076), said co-CEO Reed Hastings. “We really looked through all the data, looking at different regions where new competitors are launched, are not launched, and we just can't see any difference in our relative growth.” The business is “intensely competitive, but it always has been,” he told investors Tuesday. “We've been competing with Amazon Prime for 13 years, with Hulu for 14 years. It's always been very competitive with linear TV, too. So there's no real change that we can detect in the competitive environment.” It “really boils down” to COVID-19, said Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann. The pandemic continues to have a big global impact “and for us, at a minimum, creates just some short-term kind of choppiness in some of the business trends that we see,” he said. The stock closed down 7.4% Wednesday at $508.90.

Netflix had 3.98 million paid net additions in Q1, nearly 34% short of its Jan. 19 projection of 6 million and nearly 75% below the 15.77 net adds in Q1 2020, when the service thrived amid lockdowns. It’s forecasting a million Q2 paid net adds. Netflix finished Q1 with 208 million paid memberships, up 14% year over year but below its January guidance forecast of 210 million, it said Tuesday. “We believe paid membership growth slowed due to the big Covid-19 pull forward in 2020 and a lighter content slate in the first half of this year, due to Covid-19 production delays,” said the shareholder letter. “We continue to anticipate a strong second half with the return of new seasons of some of our biggest hits and an exciting film lineup. In the short-term, there is some uncertainty from Covid-19; in the long-term, the rise of streaming to replace linear TV around the world is the clear trend in entertainment.” The stock fell 10.4% to $492.34 at 5 p.m. EDT.

ViacomCBS will deepen its Latin American footprint and Spanish-language content library by buying Chilevision from AT&T's WarnerMedia, it said Monday.

More than a quarter of direct-to-consumer video streaming services are used in more than one household, reported Leichtman Research Group Friday. Of the 27%, 13% are used and paid for by subscribers who share them with someone outside the household, and 12% are used in one household but borrowed from another household that is paying for the service, said the researcher. Some 69% are paid for and not shared with others outside the household, said LRG, while 16% of all households have at least one DTC service fully paid for by someone else. Four percent of services aren't paid for because they're included in another service, it said. Of those ages 18-34, 26% have at least one DTC service fully paid for by someone else, vs. 12% of those 35 and older. Among virtual MVPD subscribers, 77% are “very satisfied” with their service, up from 69% in 2018; 13% are very likely to switch from a vMVPD service in the next six months, vs. 27% in 2018; 18- to 44-year-olds have 63% of vMVPD subscriptions; and 20% of all vMVPD services are shared by multiple households, said LRG. Sharing of streaming services “should not solely be viewed as lost revenue, as the ability to share with others is also part of the retention strategy for the services,” said principal Bruce Leichtman.

Among predictions from a co-founder of a new prepaid virtual MVPD is that "social TV is here to stay.” Polls and memes, like so-called watch parties, are part of social TV, said Vidgo President Shane Cannon. In an increasingly crowded media segment that continues to steal share from traditional pay TV (see 2103310055), more than 120 million consumers have subscribed to skinny bundles, said Cannon, whose company provides such content. Cannon expects that number to “pick up steam” over the rest of 2021, as live TV streaming becomes “the preferred way to watch” among younger viewers who want to pick their own content. Betting via sports channels makes "a lot of sense,” Cannon said Wednesday, noting sports betting is best served on multiple devices. A top challenge for streaming services is “how to get Gen Z to pay for content,” he told a Parks Associates virtual conference: Ad-based VOD is widening the gap, giving the segment a way to get content without paying. Vidgo believes the best way to lure Gen Z is through live sports and news -- content that doesn’t get to AVOD platforms.

While growing, virtual MVPDs face some of the same challenges as their traditional pay-TV rivals, many of which are losing video subscribers, a Parks Associates webcast heard Wednesday. Rising content costs lead vMVPDs to raise prices, said Parks' Paul Erickson. By 2023, vMVPD subs will be higher than telco and satellite pay TV combined, behind cable TV, the analyst said. In a competitive sector, Erickson said vMVPDs are riding the popularity of over-the-top video services and need unique propositions amid a growing number of rivals. Churn is a major challenge for vMVPDs, which lack customer contracts, said Erickson: Subscription duration averaged a year to 15 months for Dish Network's Sling (16 months), AT&T Now (15), Alphabet's YouTubeTV (15), Disney's Hulu + Live TV (14), AT&T WatchTV (12) and T-Mobile TVision Home (8). Since Parks' survey, AT&T announced it's spinning off DirecTV (see 2103010046), and T-Mobile shut down its TVision OTT service this week, six months after launch, instead partnering with Google and making YouTubeTV its preferred live TV offering.